Daphna Bassok, University of VirginiaScott Latham, University of VirginiaAnna Rorem, University of Virginia

Abstract

Recent accounts suggest that accountability pressures have trickled down into the early elementary grades and that kindergarten today is characterized by a heightened focus on academic skills and a reduction in opportunities for play. This paper compares public school kindergarten classrooms between 1998 and 2010 using two large, nationally representative data sets. We show substantial changes in each of the five dimensions considered: kindergarten teachers’ beliefs about school readiness, time spent on academic and nonacademic content, classroom organization, pedagogical approach, and use of standardized assessments. Kindergarten teachers in the later period held far higher academic expectations for children both prior to kindergarten entry and during the kindergarten year. They devoted more time to advanced literacy and math content, teacher-directed instruction, and assessment and substantially less time to art, music, science, and child-selected activities.

IN 2009, a report titled “Crisis in the Kindergarten” warned that kindergarten in the United States had radically changed over the past two decades and that “developmentally appropriate learning practices” centered on play, exploration, and social interactions had been replaced with highly prescriptive curricula, test preparation, and an explicit focus on academic skill building. It called for a “reversal of the pushing down of the curriculum that has transformed kindergarten into de facto first grade” (Miller & Almon, 2009, p. 63).

In recent years, major news outlets have run stories with titles such as “The New First Grade: Too Much Too Soon”; “More Work, Less Play in Kindergarten”; and “Kindergarten or ‘Kindergrind’?” (Gao, 2005; Orenstein, 2009; Tyre, 2006; Vise, 2007). Although anecdotal accounts from teachers and parents describe kindergarten classrooms characterized by mounting homework demands, worksheets, and pressure to learn to read as early as possible, there is surprisingly little empirical evidence about the extent to which kindergarten classrooms have changed over time.

This paper fills that gap, describing changes in public school kindergarten classrooms over time using two large, nationally representative datasets. We document systematic changes across five key dimensions of the kindergarten experience: (a) teachers’ beliefs about school readiness, (b) time allocated to academic and nonacademic subjects, (c) classroom organization, (d) pedagogical approach, and (e) assessment practices.